langlois



1956 o. H. LANGLOIS ELECTRICALLY HEATED MATTRESS AND CUSHION Filed July 21, 1953 /NVEN7'O/? 05 CAR H. LANGLO/S JAIAIA AIAJrJrJrAIA United States Patent ELECTRICALLY HEATED MATTRESS AND CUSHION Oscar H. Langlois, Roxbury, Mass. Application July 21, 1953, Serial No. 369,288 1 Claim. (Cl. 219-46) This invention relates to electrically heated mattresses for beds, childrens cribs and the like, and cushions for upholstered chairs and like articles of furniture.

In order that the principle of the invention may readily be understood, I have disclosed a single embodiment thereof in the accompanying drawing wherein:

Fig. 1 represents in plan view a mattress or cushion having my invention applied thereto;

Fig. 2 is an edge view, partly broken away and in section, of the structure shown in Fig. 1 and upon an enlarged scale;

Fig. 3 is a plan view upon a greatly enlarged scale, and broken away, of the structure shown in Figs. 1 and 2, and showing at the extreme lefthand side, at the upper corner, the upper half of the mattress or cushion, then next to the right showing the heating unit, then further to the right showing the so-called heatreflecting fabric, and at the extreme right showing the lower half of the mattress or cushion; and

Fig. 4 is a detail broken away to show the heat reflecting fabric, one or both faces whereof are coated or sprayed with material such as aluminum powder.

My invention comprehends means for readily heating, if desired, from the inside, the upper surface of a mattress for beds, childrens cribs, divans, sofas, etc., and of cushions as, for example, for the seat of an upholstered chair or any other like article of furniture, the material of the mattress, cushion or the like being formed desirably of rubber or rubber-containing material and known upon the market as foam rubber, though my invention is not limited to the employment of that precise material.

Mattresses for beds such as divans, etc., and cushions for upholstered chairs and like articles of furniture, and particularly when composed of a rubber-containing material, are extremely comfortable, but so far as I am aware, they lack means for heating the upper surface of the same, and particularly for providing the mattress or cushion with means between the upper and lower surfaces for applying heat and reflecting the same upward and preventing the downward passage of the heat.

In order, therefore, to provide a structure which will not only accommodate itself perfectly to the contour of the human body in whole or in part, but also to furnish heat thereto, I propose in accordance with my invention to provide what may be, and preferably is, an ordinary electric heating pad or unit, indicated more particularly at 1 in Figs. 2 and 3, and which may be provided with the usual conducting cord or cable that has a terminal plug 3 which may be plugged into the electric current provided in households, etc.

Although my invention is not wholly limited thereto, I prefer to employ it in connection with a mattress or cushion composed of separable upper and lower parts 4 and 5, which are in Fig. 2 represented as of equal or substantially equal thickness. However, I may, if desired, form the upper half or section 4 thicker than the lower section 5 so as not to make the upper section 4 less resilient because of the presence and functioning of the heating pad or unit provided by me for the purpose.

Desirably, but not necessarily, the mattress or cushion is composed in whole or in part of a rubber-containing material such as foam rubber, and it is or may be provided with depressions or cavities 6 that co-operate with the material of which the mattress or cushion is made and which co-operates with the rubber material in providing an extremely resilient structure.

In applying my invention I open up or separate from each other, either partially or completely, the upper section 4 from the lower section 5, and I place upon the upper face of said lower section 5 what I term a heat-reflecting fabric, indicated at 7 in Figs. 2, 3 and 4, and which is composed of any suitable fabric of which one or both faces thereof are coated or sprayed with a material such as aluminum powder, as indicated at 8 in Fig. 4, to reflect the heat upward and to prevent it from passing downward. Having placed in position upon the upper face of the lower section 5 the reflecting fabric 7, having one or both surfaces coated or sprayed with some suitable material, such as aluminum powder, I then place upon the top of such reflecting fabric the heating unit 1, which, as stated, may be and desirably is an electric pad such as 1. I then place the upper half or section of the mattress or cushion upon the upper surface of the heating unit, and if desired, the two parts or sections of the mattress or cushion may be secured together. The entire structure is then available for use in the customary manner of a mattress or cushion and which is, in accordance with my invention, provided with means for supplying heat to the upper section of the mattress or cushion but not to the lower section thereof. Of course, in use the mattress or cushion may from time to time be reversed in position, and when this is done the reflecting fabric with its coated face or faces is so placed as to reflect the heat upward but not downward.

Within the scope of my invention I provide for effecting a change in the degree of heat supplied by the heating unit, herein disclosed as an electric pad, in the following manner:

It is evident that the wiring leading to the electric pad is provided, as usual, with a control member which can be moved manually to High, Medium, Low or Off positions, thus supplying the greatest degree of heat or none at all, or a medium or a low degree of heat. I provide for making these changes also by a movement of the foot of the user of the invention, as applied to beds and childrens cribs, in the following manner. I provide a stocking or sock to be worn upon the foot of the user of bed or crib, and I connect that stocking or sock by a wire or cord to the control member of the electric pad, so that by a movement of the foot upon which is the stocking or sock, the degree of heat may be varied or cut off entirely. Such movement of the foot wearing the stocking or sock might be a conscious movement or it might be an unconscious movement, made, for example, if the heat were too high or too low and the person were affected in his or her movements by it.

Having thus described one illustrative embodiment of the invention, it is to be understood that although specific terms are employed, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense and not for purposes of limitation, the scope of the invention being set forth in the following claim.

I claim:

As a new article of manufacture, an integrated stratiform flexible resilient structure for bedding, cushioning and the like use in supportive relation to a prone, re-

clining or seated human body receivable thereon, said structure comprising upper and lower stratum-defining sections separable at least partly from each other and being composed of multi-cavitied stratiform masses of foam rubber, a generally conformant layer-form removable electric pad-like heating unit interposed between the two sections, and a heat insulative and reflective element substantially co-extensive with the heating unit and disposed between the latter and the lower section and comprising a fabricated web incorporating a generally uniformly distributed co-extensive discontinuous dispersion of aluminum powder affording a heatreflective medium substantially to exclude heat from the lower section and to reflect it to the upper section, said heating .unittand said heat .insulative and reflective element being mutually interchangeable positionally bestructure as a whole in one or the inverted flatwise position.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Re.2l,474 McCleary June 4, 1940 2,287,320 Mitchell June .23, 1942 2,288,232 Driscoll June 30, 1942 2,523,353 Boester Sept. 26, 1950 2,617,916 Neidnig Nov. 11, 1952 2,631,219 Suchy Mar. 10, 1953 2,660,659 Sarno Nov. 24, 1953 2,674,683 Rand Apr. 6, 1954 2,688,070 Freedlander Aug. 31, 1954 

